Art of driving gas or gas-and-steam turbines.



H SGHMIGK ART OF DRIVING GAS 0R, GAS AND STEAM TURBINE-S.

APPLIUATION FILED MAY 21, 1906.

Patented J an. 19, 1909.

I diate superheating of the fluid in heat engines I UNITED strains PATENT OFFIiQE.

Anti or biirvm'o GAS on GAS AND-STEAM rnn-B-mns.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented .Tan. 19, 1909.

Application filed May 21, 1906. Serial No. 317,963.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Hnmmon Somarox, engineer, a-sub'ject of the German Emperor, residing at Essen-on-the-Ruhr, 62 Heimckenstrasse, Germany, have invented certain new and usefullmprovements in Art of Driving Gas or Gas-and-Steam Turbines; and I do hereby declare thefol'lowing to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as enable others skilled in -the art to which it appertains to. make and use the same. A I

It is old in heat engines acting in several steps of pressure, as for instance in compound steam engines, gas turbines, steam turbines and soon, to introduce heat to the fluid between the single steps by means of heating surfaces but without changing the amount of the fluid, e. g. b heating the receiver-of a steam engine or. y reheating the dead fluid of the first turbine by a superheater.

According to my invention the intermewith several steps of ressure is accomplished by introducingl bustion into t e fluid or b the combustion of a mixture ofair and toe within the fluid, that is, by internal heating, wherein the heating medium cooperates in the process. Therefore the amount of the working fluid does not remain constant but increases step by'step according to the fluid added between the steps.

This new method has, over the known methods or heating the fluid by means of surfaces, the advantage that the'introduo' tion of heat can be efiected in a smaller space and with a much higher final temperature. Over ste turbines in which the whole mixture of air and fuel is burned and introduced before the first step there is the further ad- .vanta e that only a part of the mixture is neede to be compressed to the highest pressure while the rest is only brought to the pressure ofthe single steps. This insures a great saving of wor My new method enables one to use a stepwise compression with great advantage btaking the heating medium from the sing e steps'of a step by step compressor.

My invention is shovm by way of example in the accompanying drawing in which-'- Figure 1 is a diagrammatic view of a four stepjturbine. Fig. 2 is a diagram showing the work of the compression.

a, a, a and a are four steps of a turbine,

heated gases of com- 722,6 b andb are the steps of a rotary compressor and 0 c and;.c are the burning or expansion nozzles arranged before the single steps respectively. As it will be seen, in the present example the first ste of the turbine is fed from the last .steof t e compressor. The second step of t e turbine receives the exhaust from the first step of the turbine and the fuel coming from the third step of the compressor; the third step of the turbine receives the exhaust of the second step and the fuel coming from the second step of the compressor.

If we designate by k 7a,, 7c etc. the weight of motive fluid in kilograms added to the first, second, third and further steps, respectively, of the expansion turbine, the operation is as follows:

1. The step a of the turbine is fed'with 76 kg. fluid from the last step b of the compressor. This is, kg. fluid contain a, calories and are burned within the nozzle 0 at the highest admissible temperature T, and then expanded to a temperature T, whereby [i ca cries are changed into kinetioal energy. Therefore the exhaust of the step-c of the turbine contains is, kg. with a, p, calories.

2.-The nozzle 0 of the second ste a receives the exhaust of the first step Wit 1 y, cal; and 7c, kg. new fuel with a, cal. Then the mixture is burned and [1 cal. are changed into kinetical energy between the temperatures T,=T,. The exhaust of the second step of the turbine contains still (1 a, ,8, [5,: y, calories.

3. In the same manner the exhaust of (1 consists of (k,+lc,+7c with (u, +.a a b, [3 cal.

4. The exhaust of (1* consists of (k, 7c,,+k 4 gwith 5+ 2+ s 4 I61 I62 fie 1 cal.

In the diagram of pressure and volume as shown in Fig. 2 the surface 1, 2, 3, 4 represents the work of compression, which would be necessary for compressing the whole fuel to the highest pressure in the first step. The work of compression necessary in the present invention is shown by a hatched surface.

In applying the method to gas-and-steam turbines the introduction of the burning uses is of course effected at first behind the first step. Each of the steps or grouis o5 pressure of the turbine may consist any number of velocity stops.

Obviously it is not essential for my present invention whether the new fluid introduced for the intermediate heating is burned completely within the exhaust of the preceding step or partly or completely in an isolated chamber before being mixed with the exhaust.

It will be seen from the above description that under this invention the fluid employed todrive the fluid expansion engine is introduced into each cylinder a,, a a c of such expansion engine, and, moreover, that the degree of compression of the fluid so introduced varies for each step in such a way that the density or pressure of the fluid passing'into the successive cylinders from the highest pressure cylinder down to the lowest pressure cylinder, decreases with the pressure in said cylinders. In other words, the additional fluid introduced into each cylinder is that having a density which is nearest to the density of the fluid in said cylinder and coming from the cylinder preceding. The compression cylinders of the stepped compressor are for this purpose arranged with the conduits k 7c,, 7c,, k, in such a manner that the com ressor chamber or cylinder in which the big est degree of compression and the highest density of the driving fluid exist is brought into communication with that expansion chamber or cylinder of the ex ansion engine Where the lowest degree 0 expansion occurs, the compression chamber or cylinder in which the next highest degree of compression exists with that inder in which the next lowest degree of expansion takes place, and so on to the last compression chamber and the last expansion chamber. This'is' equivalent to saying that the expansion chambers and compression chambers are so connected in pairs in such a way that in each case that expansion cham her and that compression chamber in which the degrees of compression or density of the contained fluid are the nearest are in communication. Such combination of aste edofhfluid compressor with a stepped-oft uid expanding engine has the merit of requiring on y a fraction of the work required for compression of the entire volume of fluid employed to the highest degree, as is made evident by the work diagramof Fig. 2 in which the abscissee represent the fluid volume and the ordinates the fluid pressure. Such economy of work ensues in the case of a gas-and-steam turbine as well as in that of gas turbines, in which former case the superheating of the steam takes place at a considerable decrease of pressure under this construct on. It is to be added that since under this construction the differences between the pressures of the fluids in the compressing chambers and those in the expandmg chambers are reduced very materially,

expansion cyla waste of ener y due to loss of heat and other similar losses is avoided.

Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said invention and in What manner the same is to be performed, I declare, that What I claim is:

16 The process of driving gas-'and-steam or gas turbines, which consists in compressing the driving fluid in steps and causing the fluid of each step of the compression to ex pand se arately in steps and in the inverse order 0 compression, the compressed fluid of each step mingling. with the expanded fluid coming from the preceding step of expansion.

2. The rocess of driving gas-and-steam or gas tur ines, which consists in causing a compressed driving fluid to expand in aseries of steps and adding to the fluid at each step of expansion additional compressed fluid, the degree of compression of such additional fluid-being inverse to the degree of expansion of the expanding fluid.

3. The method of driving gas-and-steam or gas turbines, which consists in causing a compressed driving fluid to expand in a series of steps and adding to the fluid after each step of expansion heated compressed 'fluid, the degree of compression of the fluid added to the successive steps of expansion decreasing as the degree of expansion of the fluid of such steps increases.

,4. The combination, of a stepped fluid ex pansion engine with a step ed fluid compressor, and means for introd iicing the compressed fluid from each cylinder of the compressor into the expansion cylinder containing the fluid nearest in density to the fluid in such compression cylinder. v

5. The combination, of a stepped fluid expansion engine and a stepped fluid compressor having a series of compression cylinders with a series ofconduits arranged to connect each of the cylinders of the expansion engine with that compression cylinder containing fluid nearest in density to its driving fluid.

6. A stepped fluid expansion en ine having cylinders arranged in series l rom the highest to the lowest pressure, in combination, with conduits, one for each cylinder, and compression chambers communicating with said conduits and so arranged that the compression chambers and cylinders con tamlng the fluid nearest in density are in communication.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto aflixed mysignature in the presence of two witnesses.

HEINRICH SCHMICK. Witnesses:

WILLIAM ESSENWEIN, ALFR. POHLMEYER. 

